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When Yuri retired from being a field agent he was expecting to be put behind the scenes. Maybe placed as one of the many trainers employed by headquarters. He did not expect to be given a few months of rest before being given a kid to look after. But when the higher ups said do, you didn’t ask questions.
The kid in question was now standing in front of him anxiety written all over his face. He was young. Too young to be here. And so thin. Yuri could tell he had some muscle definition but the boy was like a willow. Strong but spindly. The kid's most striking feature was the Lichtenberg figures streaking their way across his face. They extended from above his left brow down below the sunglasses the boy wore and across his cheek and chin with the hint of more snaking along his neck and disappearing under his hoodie.
“So. We're now recruiting kids, huh?” The secretary that had brought him to meet his new burden ignored his comment.
“Ivanova, you'll be working as Nikolaev's support from now on. Get to know each other. You’ll be paired up for a good long while.” She then left the room leaving him alone with the kid.
“Well then. You just going to stand there or do you want to sit down?” Yuri gestured to the couch that had been placed in the conference room they were in. The kid looked up from where he had been staring at the wall and his lips pressed together. He nodded slightly but did not move. After waiting a moment for the kid to move, Yuri shrugged and started towards the seat. The kid followed before walking straight into the coffee table and falling with a small yelp. Ok. That was weird.
“Jeez kid watch where you’re going eh?” Yuri moved to help him up noticing that the sunglasses he had been wearing had fallen off to reveal milky glossed over eyes staring at nothing. What the fuck. Had the higher ups gone insane? This was their new field agent? A blind child?
Ignoring his jump of surprise, he grabbed the child by the arm before marching them both out of the room and right to his boss's office. Pushing past the secretary telling him he needed to make an appointment, he burst through the door.
“Is this some kind of joke?” he was fuming. He might not have been the most caring person but he wouldn’t stand back and watch as these monsters sent a helpless child to his death.
“Is what a joke, Ivanova?” If it hadn’t been for the fact that he was a highly respected man here, he was sure she would have killed him where he stood.
“You're sending a fucking child? A blind child into the field where he will most certainly die? What the hell is wrong with you?”
“I assure you that Nikolaev is perfectly capable of performing this job. With some training, he'll be the most powerful agent we have ever had.” She wasn’t looking at either of them and from the tight expression on her face, she didn’t like the situation any more than he did but it was out of her hands. Most likely these were orders straight from the top brass themselves. Yuri didn’t care. This was a fucking child.
“He’s blind!” He felt the kid flinch violently in his grasp. “He can’t fucking see! Are you wanting me to be his seeing eye dog? Because I don’t think that will help when some devil is moving towards him faster than I can shout a warning!” “I assure you Ivanova that he is perfectly capable. Now why don’t you talk to him and learn what he can do and get out of my office before I lose my temper.” With that he found himself pushed out of the office by an invisible force with the kid still held tightly in his grasp.
His name was Alexei Nikolaev. He was 16 years old and had lost his vision two years ago after being struck by lightning. Apparently, he could control electric charges and could see using electric impulses. Like that mammal with the bill like a duck. The more he talked to the boy the more enraged he became at his situation. The boy had a very hopeful dance career before all this but now he was stuck here after being forcefully recruited. He could not talk to any of his friends or family and he did not know anyone here. He did not smile. He did not laugh. He did nothing but quietly answer questions and silently train. Yuri made it his mission to get the boy to smile. Just once.
Then one day, he came in to work to find that Alexei wasn’t there. He didn’t show up the next day, or the day after that either. When Yuri finally saw him again, his hair was shaved close to his head and he had stitches along his skull as well as weird circular pieces of metal embedded within it. He looked tired and traumatized and sick. Yuri immediately put an arm over the boy's small shoulders and guided him off to a small break room where he could lie down. After helping the kid find the sofa inside, Yuri went and got a glass of water along with the trash bin in case he threw up and came back to find him curled up in the fetal position quietly sniffling.
“What did they do?”
“I don’t know. They took me to a room and they made me sleep and now everything hurts. My head's exploding.”
“Let's get you some pain killers then"
“Th-they said no meds. They'll interfere with healing.”
“Alright. Ok. How about you just sleep. I'll turn off the light and make sure no one bothers you ok?” Yuri didn’t receive an answer other than sniffling so he gently rubbed the boy’s arm and got up to turn off the light. This was incredibly messed up. When he first joined up, everything was fairly transparent for a secret organization run by former loyal Soviets. Now, they were taking children and doing things to them without their knowledge or consent. Yuri gave himself a second mission then and there. He would get Alexei out of here no matter what.
A few weeks after Alexei’s surprise surgery, they found out what was done. He was given a brain implant that would connect to a piece of experimental equipment to help him “see" better. Long periods of use gave him horrible headaches and nausea that left him curled up and shivering. This knowledge wasn’t much of a comfort to either of them although Alexei did slowly learn to accept and use the device.
For two years the pair trained together and built up a good-natured friendship. After warming up to him, Alexei proved to be quite talkative though he still spoke in a voice barely above a whisper and never in front of anyone else. He also started to let his hair grow until it brushed his shoulders and covered his implants. Before every mission, Yuri would help him pull his hair into a neat bun and attach his visor to the implants. He still had yet to see the boy smile.
He had been crying. His pale unfocused eyes were rimmed in red and his nose was still running slightly causing him to sniff loudly every once in a while. Using his knowledge of past Alexei incidents, Yuri quickly lead him to the break room the two had claimed as their own and sat him down on the sofa. Quickly making the pair cups of tea, he sat down next to the boy and wrapped an arm around him.
“Sveta thinks I’m dead. She thinks I’m dead and I know she blames herself.” Yuri didn’t know who this Sveta was but he could see she meant a lot to his partner.
“It is hard to leave your loved ones behind like this. I know.”
“She… she thinks I’m dead and I can’t help her.” Alexei was once again crying.
“I know. I know. It hurts. You want to reach out but they'll send in the sweepers and then your family won’t even know you existed. It hurts. Just let it out. You'll feel better once you do.”
The kid collapsed into him after that. Repeating the fact that Sveta though he was dead between choked sobs. Yuri just held him close and let him soak his shirt with tears. He now had a third mission. Help the kid contact his family.
After figuring out a discreet way to send Sveta small notes and gifts to tell her that Alexei was still there, Yuri finally saw it. A small almost unnoticeable smile graced the young face of his partner. And after that many more followed getting bigger every time until they spread wide and lopsided over the face of the kid Yuri had come to love like a son. He quietly celebrated this small victory. Two missions down. One to go.
Over time, Alexei became much more open. At age 20, after finally starting to feel somewhat comfortable in this life that had been thrust upon him, he started talking to more people around headquarters charming everyone with his bright smile and glowing personality. Other agents would sneak things out for his family and bring back small tokens from them. The entire base would gladly break every rule for their little brother. Even the higher ups stationed there turned a blind eye to all the rule bending. Good. Yuri had allies for when he finally got Alexei out.
He also became much more annoying. He could talk for hours on end to the point where even the ever-patient Yuri was on the verge of begging him to please shut up. He also whined constantly about being lonely. Of how he wanted a love life that was more substantial than the occasional one-time partners he sometimes took. Of how his back hurt after a night perusing the local bars. That particular story was not one Yuri ever wanted to hear again. Thus began another mission, this time agreed upon by the entire base. Get Nikolaev a boyfriend.
It was against the rules but Alexei did in fact manage to get himself a boy 4 years later. Otebek was a kid of average height with a massive hole in his face, a weight problem and issues that Yuri really wished he didn’t have but a boy all the same. Even if Yuri did not approve of his adopted son’s new lover, Alexei talked about him like he hung the stars in the sky and he could not find it in himself to really dislike the man. This did not solve the problem however. Instead of whining mopey Alexei, Yuri had to deal with oversharing Alexei instead. Every single thing ‘Beka' did was reported to him excitedly. And Yuri wouldn’t actually change a thing as much as he wished his kid would shut up about all this.
Then he started to drag his feet coming in each day. Whereas before, he would show up about 15 minutes before he needed to, Alexei was now coming in with only seconds to spare before he was considered late. He was distracted and unenthusiastic about missions and began asking Yuri to help him research Texas of all places. He started talking about his family in a more insistent way and questioned why they were even doing this work anyway. He talked of getting a house with his boyfriend and living a happy little domestic life with such wistfulness that it hurt Yuri to think that it may never happen. After eight years of waiting, it was time.
Gathering his allies, they slowly and carefully planned a way to get Alexei out of there and under the protection of people who would not let anyone take him back. They made sure that his friends and family wouldn’t suffer the consequences of his desertion and triple checked that they had not left any loose ends. He knew that Alexei would be safe and happy with Otebek by his side. It was time to give his boy his well deserved freedom.